The state of SEGA and the games

[CrazyT]

Making this thread because I found it an interesting subject but didn't wanna derail the aliens thread.

Basically, what do you guys think of the state of SEGA at the moment? I was arguing about how west for me despite how little there is, makes greater games, but I realised that this is too subjective so maybe its better to see what others think as well

My most played games of 2012 have been coincidently all western developed SEGA games. To name a few

Hell Yeah!
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Total war series
And most of all, spiral knights.

But that's just me. Beside those games i've played binary domain as well. Should have probably given virtua fighter the chance, but as being more focused with PC lately, I haven't been able to give it a try.

I feel like most games coming from SEGA japan just aren't that great anymore, despite me loving what the japanese industry brings a lot more. I feel like most of the stuff either doesn't deliver or only lasts for one playthrough and then you realise that you hoped for more.

For me the biggest example is the yakuza series. To be honest I expected a lot more from yakuza 5, if not only because some of nagoshi's words pre release. I just expected more of it and i'm soo convinced that the yakuza series can be so much better. I mean come on guys, despite having our preferences for series, can't we say that yakuza could have evolved a lot more in the HD era?

Radrappy and me have had a lot of arguments about PSO2, but both being great fans of the franchise I think we can both agree that the direction its chosen is a strange one. Less focussing on the experience of going through a field, instead more on cosmetics and collection. It's become such a casual experience that it hurts for someone who's loved the franchise and hoped it could have been the revival of the series after PSU. I'll let people judge when the western release is out, but if ya wanna try it out now, you'll easily find the english patch that translates nearly everything in the game.

This is just my take imo. In short i'd say that creative assembly, 3 rings(spiral knights), sumo digital(despite not being part of SEGA) are one of the best devs SEGA has at the moment.

Sonicteam, team PSO and all the other various devs from japan not so much. Fingers crossed we get a valkyria chronicles 3 release here in the west because really that's the only game that could do SEGA japan any justice for me..

Anyway what do you guys think?

[Aki-at]

For me the biggest example is the yakuza series. To be honest I expected a lot more from yakuza 5, if not only because some of nagoshi's words pre release. I just expected more of it and i'm soo convinced that the yakuza series can be so much better. I mean come on guys, despite having our preferences for series, can't we say that yakuza could have evolved a lot more in the HD era?

Do you go by what you played in the Yakuza 5 demo or the full game? Just wondering.

I'll reply in full after THE PLAYSTATION 4 HYPE TRAIN explodes and is finished.

[CrazyT]

Haha watching now too while typing this. Good stuff so far

Anyway I only played the demo and read various impressions at the sega forums, neogaf and youtube reviews. No one is denying it to be a great game. I just feel like the franchise is restricting itself from global praise and instead has focussed itself now to japanese mass market and their standards alone. Really the only reason why I am being critisizing about this because i'm not looking at this with the mentality of "as long I like it, i'm fine". It's that I see the wasted potential of such a powerful franchise globally succeeding. With each installment while gaming evolves, the series just starts to  feel more dated. I just think it doesn't have to be. It doesn't have to be but their focus is simply lies elsewhere.
Having said that, I wonder if yakuza 5 will even get a western release.

Nagoshi is now promising the same thing for the next installment as I think he did for yakuza 5
http://segabits.com/blog/2013/02/12/nagoshi-discusses-the-next-yakuza-title-promises-a-more-physical-experience/
In my opinion its a nescesity for it to be true for the next installment. I don't feel much has changed from yakuza 2 to yakuza 5(some would even claim yakuza 2 to still be the best for example). Things will have to evolve eventually.

[MadeManG74]

I actually like Yakuza because it won't change to the whims of the market. It's an old-school brawler/JRPG and I love it because of that.

Too bad I'll probabyl have to play Yakuza 5 in Nipponese and try to keep up with internat fan translations.

But yeah, overall, Sega still makes a lot of the games I like. Yakuza, Virtua Fighter, Total War, but I really have no love or interest left in stuff like Sonic, and of course stuff like Colonial Marines.

If they were publishing Bayonetta 2 that would be another feather in their cap, but...yeah.

Basically I keep up with them for the few franchises I still like from them, but whenever they announce a new game now I'm only waiting to make a joke about cell-phones rather than actually giving a fuck anymore.

I still admire their old games very much though.

[Aki-at]

Anyway I only played the demo and read various impressions at the sega forums, neogaf and youtube reviews. No one is denying it to be a great game. I just feel like the franchise is restricting itself from global praise and instead has focussed itself now to japanese mass market and their standards alone. Really the only reason why I am being critisizing about this because i'm not looking at this with the mentality of "as long I like it, i'm fine". It's that I see the wasted potential of such a powerful franchise globally succeeding.

Well Yakuza is a very Japanese title, regardless it was always going to aim at them, rightly or wrongly, on the only market that supports the title. Though like MadeManG, I do not see the title as an action adventure title but more of a JRPG brawler. These are anarchic genres but its the last of a once successful genre, if they want to try to do something a bit more modern I say they should just make a brand new series. If they want to go for a global audience, why jeopardise what they have built in Yakuza and aim for the dollars?

Though after seeing that Playstation 4 presentation, it seems SEGA's Japanese teams are going to be left further in the dust. I really just do not see how they are going to be able to sustain themselves with spiralling budgets on consoles when they can focus on one market alone. I mean they still make games I love from both West and East, but I just do not see how they can push themselves onto the next generation of consoles and realistically seeing them forced on handheld and mobile titles.

So basically on the same boat as Mang.

[Chaosmaster8753]

The lack of games from most of SEGA's Japanese development teams is reminding me of Konami for some reason.

[Sharky]

I love Western Segas games... But not always their attitude.

Creative Assembly are going to be huge next gen... Love Total War, Can't freakin wait for War Hammer Total War or their next gen Aliens game. REALLY want a spiritual sequel to Viking...

Super excited that they have Relic now too... CoH is ace.


Also, if Sonic Team can keep the upwards trend in Sonic games I'm super excited for the next Sonic game. Generations and Colours were awesome.

[George]

Hey look, its a ghost. Oh, nah, its a shark.

[Sharky]

I'm back... and if nobody else dies... I'll be back for longer.

[Centrale]

Personally I'm pretty impressed with Sega over the past few years.  The fact is, for me, they are putting out too many games I'm interested in and I can't keep up.  The digital reissues are stellar, and their major boxed games have all intrigued me over the past couple/few years.  But I don't have the time for it all.  Granted, I've got a baby now, so that can't be denied is a primary factor.  Also, I've begun seriously collecting all their prior systems, so I am focusing a lot on their older games too.  Nevertheless, they've been releasing high quality new games consistently for quite some time now.  I think their move to increase their share of the RTS market is quite good, even though it's not a genre I'm personally interested in. 

However, like most of you, I would agree their marketing team is a disaster squad.  They will yank victory from the jaws of defeat ten times out of ten. 

But as for all the moaning that they're a shadow of their former self, etc., I think that's a bit of nostalgia-tinged nonsense.  Just my personal opinion.  Sega's doing quite well, especially in these gloomy economic times, and I think they still have room to improve if they can get another big hit franchise going. 

I am starting to worry about Yakuza 5 making it over here, though. 

[Nameless 24]

I think the problem with the Yakuza series from a business perspective is that the Japanese Audience won't evolve in terms of mentality for new mechanics, which is why their market is somewhat shrinking from fatigue of the same tired franchises in the space of a few years (Yakuza being the exception due to only releasing 5 PS3 titles, two of them spin-offs).

I think if the Japanese market adapted so that the more modern approach with all of their genres from JRPG to platformers weren't so stiff they'd be seeing the benefits in the west too.

Capcom don't seem to have learned from their Resident Evil system of making more CGIs then the last game or outsourcing DmC to a British Dev (Yes, I am British also, but it's not right) to cater to the West when they should just try to take it to the next level.

SEGA's current problem is that they don't know how to make an international steady seller these days. Other then Sonic, Super Monkey Ball was their last "big" western seller that was created by a Japanese Development team. I think Valkyria Chronicles was a great idea but unfortunately for SEGA of Japan, they didn't see the sales nor the interest so it was relegated into an Anime PSP franchise instead.

I think even Nintendo are struggling because it seems that throwing Mario at it works more then anything else (well...Pokemon) but are stumped when they noticed that NSMBU wasn't enough.

[ROJM]

I really don't understand the viewpoint of sega producing shit games when they've recently been releasing very good stuff. Just because ACM hasn't worked out we've had certain individuals in this forum trying to extend one crap title as being the signal of Sega being rubbish overall or rewriting history over BINARY DOMAIN being a disappointing experience to the Sega masses.

[Barry the Nomad]

I think its a shame that the community team gets shit that really should be directed at the marketing team. At least, where I work our community people are part of marketing however they have very little to no control over marketing's decisions.

[ROJM]

Shame, real shame. I wouldn't blame the community peeps for anything that the corporate side does or don't do. Its not like that these guys are in charge of multimillion budgets.But its the only way some people feel that they can vent their anger since you guys are the first line of defense as it were.

[Barry the Nomad]

I'd actually like to know who heads up SEGA West or SEGA of America's marketing department. Is it a position held in Europe that extends to America? Or does America have a dedicated advertising team?

If it's the former, then I can see why marketing suffers in the US. Never a good plan to have somebody working out-of-country. If it's an American team working under somebody who is working remotely from Europe, again a bad plan. But if its a dedicated American marketing team who is interntal, they need to get their shit together.

I wonder, though, if SEGA West actually farms out the marketing work to PR teams? I don't want to reveal too much, but when SoA reached out to us for the All-Stars Racing Transformed reveal, it was an external marketing firm that reached out and handled the event, with SoA community people present. But it seems the event itself was put together by an external firm.